Enron Toll Widens with Death of Former Executive

HOUSTON (Reuters) - The toll of the Enron bankruptcy expanded dramatically on Friday with the apparent suicide of a former executive who had opposed the accounting practices that led to the collapse of the energy trading giant.

J. Clifford Baxter, 43, who resigned as vice chairman of Enron Corp. last April, killed himself with a gunshot to the head, police in Sugar Land, Texas, an affluent Houston suburb, said.

Baxter, who resigned from Enron last May, had reportedly feuded with then Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling over the propriety of off-balance-sheet transactions involving hundreds of partnerships that ultimately triggered the once-mighty Houston company's spiral into the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.

Sugar Land police officers and a Fort Bend County constable gather outside the Sugar Land, Texas home of former Enron vice chairman J. Clifford Baxter Friday, Jan. 25, 2002. Baxter was discovered shot to death in a car parked on a median not far from his home, an apparent suicide, authorities said. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)

Sugar Land Police Department spokeswoman Patricia Whitty said Baxter was found inside his Mercedes early on Friday with a gunshot wound to the head, a suicide note, and a revolver at his side.

He had Enron identification in his wallet, Whitty said. Police declined to divulge the contents of the note.

Enron confirmed the death in a short statement: ``We are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of our friend and colleague, Cliff Baxter.''

``We've got to hold on,'' Jackson said. ``In the darkest hours the stars shine most clearly.''

Tim Sundel, who is among the thousands of Enron employees who were laid off in December, said he felt deep sadness on hearing the news of Baxter's death.

``I think the timing has something to do with all of the momentum that is growing around the collapse of a very wonderful company,'' he said.

Baxter's suicide came one day after the start of congressional hearings on Enron's collapse and the role of its auditor, Big Five accounting firm Andersen, as legislators seek answers on why Andersen employees had destroyed thousands of documents related to Enron audits.

But furious lawmakers got few answers on Thursday as fired Andersen partner David Duncan refused to testify, invoking his Constitutional right under the Fifth Amendment to avoid self-incrimination.

Hearings by the House Energy and Commerce Committee and another by the Senate on Thursday were the first of nine scheduled over the next six weeks into Enron, which freely gave to politicians of both parties but was particularly generous to the election of campaign of President Bush (news - web sites).

Congressional investigators had sought to interview Baxter last week while they were in Houston talking to others about Enron, congressional committee sources told Reuters on Friday.

``We did not seek testimony from him (Baxter) yet. His name was brought up numerous times during investigators' meetings,'' a congressional source said.

Almost all of the U.S. legislators serving on congressional committees investigating Enron have received campaign contributions from Enron or Andersen, the New York Times reported on Friday.

Of the 248 senators and members of the House of Representatives on 11 congressional committees investigating the firm, 212 received donations from the two firms, according to an analysis by the Times and the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit research group that tracks money in politics.

According to the analysis, 43 of the 57 members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee have received money from Enron and 52 of its 57 members have received donations from Andersen.

Legislators on Friday asked Enron's former Chairman and CEO, Kenneth Lay, to provide information on loans he received from the once high-flying energy firm and on his sales of company stock.

The Wall Street Journal on Friday reported that reorganization specialist Stephen Cooper is a front-runner to be named acting CEO of Enron. Cooper, a managing principal of consulting firm Zolfo Cooper, was scheduled to meet with Enron senior management during the next few days.

The Times has also reported that Lay, who resigned as chairman and CEO earlier this week but remains a member of Enron's board of directors, had repeatedly used millions of dollars in Enron stock to repay loans made to him by the company. The newspaper's report was based on an interview with Lay's lawyer, Earl Silbert.

Former vice chairman Baxter was the subject of lawsuits that targeted 29 of Enron's top directors and insiders, accusing them of cashing in on inside information at the expense of stockholders.

Court records and securities filings show that Baxter earned some $35.2 million by exercising Enron stock options, including $9 million in 2001 alone.

However, despite the financial rewards Baxter may have reaped, a former Enron official said relations between Baxter and other Enron executives were strained, at best.

``Cliff Baxter complained mightily to Skilling and all who would listen about the inappropriateness of our transactions with LJM,'' Enron whistle-blower Sherron Watkins wrote to Lay in an Aug. 14 letter.

His complaints targeted the so-called ``LJM'' and ``LJM2'' investment partnerships managed by then-Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow, who earned $30 million for that work in addition to his Enron salary.

Enron filed for the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history on Dec. 2, wiping out 5,000 jobs and leaving investors -- including many employees who held company stock in their retirement accounts -- holding nearly worthless stocks.

From a high of about $90 in Aug. 2000, Enron stock crashed to 67 cents on Jan. 10 before trading was halted its shares delisted from the New York Stock Exchange (news - web sites). Enron shares now trade over-the-counter at about 45 cents.

Baxter, who was the lead negotiator on Enron's purchase of Portland General Electric in 1997, joined Enron in 1991 and was chairman and CEO of Enron North America before being named chief strategy officer. In Oct. 2000, he was promoted to vice chairman.

Enron's statement on Baxter's suicide, which was posted on the company's Web site (http://www.enron.com), was a terse, three-sentence statement.

But in a statement announcing Baxter's resignation last May, Enron had lauded Baxter's ``... creativity, intelligence, sense of humor and straightforward manner.''

The May press release had also described Enron as ``one of the world's leading electricity, natural gas and communications companies,'' noting that Fortune magazine for six straight years had named it ``America's Most Innovative Company.''

Of course, the left sees everything as pointing to Bush. They even are saying that Bush had him taken out. They are as bitter and delusional as ever.

I am absolutely overjoyed at their glee over this suicide, because it will make their letdown that much harder for them to swallow once they realize that, at best, it's all internal Enron/Andersen fraud, and at worst, it goes all the way back to the Clintons.

Remember, technically Bill Clinton can be impeached again, even now. It'll never happen without the mother of all smoking guns coming out, but we can dream. And the facts remain that the Dems' hands are much dirtier in the Enron pie than the GOP's.

It's amazing how much speculation there is here, based on so little information. Not that speculation is bad, but to be convinced that he was murdered seems like reaching a conclusion without any facts.

Let's see what the suicide note says. Let's wait for some crime scene analysis. Let's wait to see if there is some perfectly plausible explanation.

One thing that I thought was interesting from this story was the photo of his house. That doesn't appear to be a terribly expensive house for the Sugar Land real estate area. I can't see the entire house, but I'd put it in the $500,000 range. Certainly not a million dollar house, which is surprising for someone who had made as much money as he had.

Not that speculation is bad, but to be convinced that he was murdered seems like reaching a conclusion without any facts.

But you know what, we’re a bunch of knuckleheads on an internet forum. Nobody cares what we say.

Why are the police and media immediately announcing “suicide” without all the crime scene analysis? That’s irresponsible, even if they stick "alleged" or "apparent" in front of their conclusions.

The American public cannot question that a Fortune 500 corporation could be run by total sleaze.

I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Ninety percent of the American public thinks anybody who runs a very large company is, by definition, a rich scumbag.

Their socialist media tells them so.

I don't think I agree. Police routinely make such announcements without the investigation being complete. Think of all the times you've read reports about murders. How do they know that the victim didn't elaborately stage the evidence to make it look like a murder?

You're right, though. Nobody cares about our speculation and if we want to be convinced at this stage that it's murder, there's no harm done.

As I was driving home today from work, I noticed that at least one Houston radio staton was conducting a poll whether the audience thought it was suicide or murder. It certainly seems to be a fair topic for discussion.

It certainly would make for a much more intriguing story if it was murder, so I guess I'm hoping for that. I'll still wait for some more facts, though, before I form a firm opinion.

Baxter was said to be "one of the good guys at Enron" who quit when he saw the bad guys were tearing the company apart. Perhaps all this Congressional and media presssure might have had a hand in making him feel the pressure and doing himself in (? will we ever know the facts?).

True, note numbers racket is illegal unless loto, goto vegas to get a fair game without "insiders."

If the stock market is the largest casino in the world at least the mob runs a fair game in vegas.

I read about the family and thought: "They are going through unspeakable grief, guilt, anger, and embarrasment all at once." Grief at the loss and guilt from the surviving or feeling that they are somehow responsible. Anger because the family member brought this "situation upon them." And embarrasment at the circumstances that they find themselves in as they attempt to "rationalize" these circumstances.

Having had a brother who committed suicide I understand the way this family feels.

We were fortunate in that the newspapers and the news in a rural area were sensitive to the situation. The editor of the town's newspaper was an individual who's father committed suicide.

It will be good to get back to the country.. and let the elite run the show.....

Nothing new under the sun, I have said many times that I would: only buy treasuries or go to vegas and put the ira on the pass/go line.

As, for instance, in the certain murder by arson in Houston of one of our fellow FReepers, in another instance where a stalled investigation and the *official version* comes off smelling fishy.

-archy-/-

What the #$%& does Jesse Jack#ss have to do with any of this?

Also, what were those "hollywood liberal scumbags" doing at the Enron(Anderson)hearings yesterday? Some idiot congressman((D)Michigan)actually took time out to acknowledge their presence..something to do with equal rights for female executives?

Guess every circus has to have it's freaks!

He left a note; sounds like he depressed and could not handle the scandal and it's consequences.

If I wanted to off somebody whose murder could trigger inconvenient investigations, I would tell the victim: "You have a choice. You either write a nice suicide note and get a relatively painless bullet to the head, or I can just run you feet-first thru a wood-chipper. Your choice"

Not quite. In the case of Clifford Baxter, the more likely threat would be to run Baxter's 16-year-old son through the woodchipper feet first unless Cliffie departed this world leaving a nice bye-bye letter behind. Something along those lines may also have helped motivate Arther Anderson *Telecommunications Consultant* James Watkins shoot himself in the head in similar circumstances in Denver in mid-December [If you don't know how the Arthur Anderson firm is linked to Enron, do a websearch]

Which would you choose? Rocky Mountain News account of Watkins *suicide*.

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